John Calipari’s Kentucky tournament disasters continue, while calls for his job grow stronger.
Over the last four years, forty-eight men’s collegiate basketball teams have won at least two NCAA tournament games.
Against all odds, the sport’s most wealthy blue blood isn’t among them.
Kentucky, an eight-time national champion, is battling to make it through the NCAA tournament’s first round, let alone break its nine-year Final Four drought. From 1988 to 2022, the Wildcats only lost in the round of 64 once, but they have done so twice in the last three seasons.
On Thursday, a catch-and-shoot expert who played for Division II Hillsdale College last season contributed to Kentucky’s agony. Jack Gohlke came off the bench for Oakland and buried 10 three-pointers, one shy of the single-game NCAA tournament record, driving the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies to a surprising 80-76 victory over the strongly favored Wildcats.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that Kentucky has elevated a lesser-known opponent to the status of NCAA tournament folk hero. Two years earlier, Doug Edert, Saint Peter’s mustachioed sixth man, led the team to an unlikely 15-versus-2 victory. Last year, Markquis Nowell, Kansas State’s 5-foot-8 Mr. New York City, scored 27 points to defeat the Wildcats.
The previous year, Kentucky was less generous. The Wildcats missed the NCAA tournament after suffering their worst season in nearly a century, falling from the preseason top ten to a 9-16 record.
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All of this will compel Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart to face previously unimaginable questions, such as how much money he is ready to pay to dismiss John Calipari. What is it worth leaving a head coach who can’t seem to replicate the magic of the first half of his Kentucky tenure, when Calipari might have run for state governor and won easily?
“Fire Cal” may have trended on X on Thursday night, but such a move would be prohibitively expensive. Even if Kentucky were courageous enough to fire a Hall of Fame coach, Calipari’s contract reportedly requires him to be paid 75% of the remaining value of his contract. That is more than $33 million.
It also doesn’t help that there isn’t a clear must-have successor who can win big and thrive in that fishbowl situation. Scott Drew of Baylor has just announced that he will stay put after Louisville made a run at him. UConn’s Dan Hurley does not look to be in a hurry to depart Storrs. There is always the option of throwing large money at Billy Donovan.
This implies that Kentucky may be saddled with a coach who is no longer the best fit for college basketball’s most prominent position. Calipari continues to bring in McDonald’s All-Americans and prospective NBA lottery choices year after year, but it hasn’t resulted in the same level of success as it did with John Wall, Anthony Davis, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
